Friday, 8 August 2014

I'm still trying to work out to myself if today's reading from the Prophet Nahum was the most appropriate or inappropriate that could possibly have been read out as the horrors unfold before us on the plains of Nineveh. He who said Mass for us today made no mention of it whatsoever.

See, over the mountains the messenger hurries!

‘Peace!’ he proclaims.

Judah, celebrate your feasts,

carry out your vows,

for Belial will never pass through you again;

he is utterly annihilated.

Yes, the Lord is restoring the vineyard of Jacob

and the vineyard of Israel.

For the plunderers had plundered them,

they had broken off their branches.

Woe to the city soaked in blood,

full of lies,

stuffed with booty,

whose plunderings know no end!

The crack of the whip!

The rumble of wheels!

Galloping horse,

jolting chariot,

charging cavalry,

flash of swords,

gleam of spears...

a mass of wounded,

hosts of dead,

countless corpses;

they stumble over the dead.

I am going to pelt you with filth,

shame you, make you a public show.

And all who look on you will turn their backs on you and say,

‘Nineveh is a ruin.’

Could anyone pity her?

Where can I find anyone to comfort her?

Perhaps the message is that it is God who will punish wickedness, not us. Perhaps the message is that we should continue to live as God has always said we should live, in peace and charity with our fellow man and avoiding idolatry at all costs. Perhaps it is also worth quoting an earlier passage from the same prophet as it refers to all the people of good will in that area, whatever their faith. (What is happening out there is a tragedy for the faithful of Islam too, and we rejoice over that at our peril).

Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more, And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds assunder ...

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace.

You see, I think the thing is that we are all forgetting is that Christianity is THE religion of worldly failure. The world should ever look at us and laugh, scorn, mock, deride. Ours is not a religion where battles are won and temporal victories resound triumphant. Necessary battles have been fought in the name of Christianity but there is always a larger defeat looming around the corner. We are a failure in the eyes of the world, therein lies our strength. It is only through rallying round Christ whose earthly mission was a near complete failure, that we can possibly hope to share in the supernatural victory over sin and death. He won this for us through His complete, abject, degrading worldly failure. And when individuals see this, when they see the love we have for each other and all our fellow men, then they will recognise the Truth, and the peace that only Christ can win.

And how does this practically help all the good souls caught up in this horror in Northern Iraq? We offer practical help where we can and also we pray for them all, we pray to their Guardian Angels to guide them, inspire them and comfort them. We pray to the God of compassion and mercy that no suffering is prolonged. We offer a sacrifice of praise to God for all those souls too distraught to do it themselves. We do not fear the enemy (who is most definitely behind all of this) and we do not trust any purely political or military "solution".